The Moment I knew I was an American

I would make the guess that the moment I realized I was an American was when I as in kindergarden or first grade. And I guess Christopher Columbus was included. So basically at my old elementary school from about kindergarden-5th grade, Christopher Columbus was portrayed as a heroic explorer that founded America and made peace with the Native Americans. And in the illustrations everybody was all smiles. Him, the Native Americans, the pilgrims, etc. We all know pretty much the full story now. Now that we can handle it, they start teaching us little by little how he was a murderer. They build on year after year. Until this year where we read his actual journals or whatever in American Lit. Now we know it all.

So anyways, we talked about it in  kindergarden and that was probably when I realized I was an American. We talked about how he came from Europe to America, except he thought he was in Asia(India). We talked about how he was the reason for us being here today. How he was nothing but good to the Native Americans. How he brought them new food, and corn, etc. We didn't talk about his downsides......such as mass murder, disease, etc. We talked about how he is the founder of this country. How he is the reason we live here and are proud to call ourselves Americans. But if he was the reason we are called Americans I'd rather not be called one because of all his horrible actions. I would not like to be called an American if it is solely because this man 'founded' our country. I want to be called an American because I live in this country, because I respect and am loyal to it.